Re-Pete After Me

Pete Sampras is bringing his bag of yellow balls to Frisco this weekend. You could trek to Arlington this weekend to pay your last respects to a suck-ass baseball outfit that last night lost its 82nd game of 2007 and clinched its seventh losing season in the last eight years…

Austin Fights Back, Sending Famous Furniture Store to LFT

Few months back we mentioned how Austin wasn’t terribly happy with how Dallas had taken over its 2nd Street District. All of the sudden it seemed like downtown Austin was looking like Uptown Dallas — Cru, Taverna, Cantina Laredo, III Forks, Paciugo Gelato, Which Wich, etc. But at least one…

Casey Thompson is Through the Bullshit

Casey Thompson is one step closer to being named Top Chef’s Top Chef. Feels like this season of Top Chef has been running for years — who are half the people in the opening credits, anyway? At least we’re down to the Final Four: Hung, Dale, Brian and — wouldya…

Missed Manners

I have never been the world’s biggest fan of children, even when I was one. In junior high, I cringed every time a kid addressed a teacher as “Hey, miss!” And when I completed my first and only baby-sitting job, I was exhausted from chasing a naked 6-year-old boy around…

Lock in Romo|Road to Ruin|Blue Skies Forever

Lock in Romo Pay the man: Wow—what a stat you pulled out of your magic hat today, Richie—after his first 11 regular-season starts, Tony has more yards than Troy and Roger…combined (“Romo Arigato,” by Richie Whitt, September 13). Absolutely unbelievable! Now I’m really excited about this season! And wouldn’t it…

Dream a Little Dream

Dream a little dream: Buzz just needs to stay away from some people. Grown-ups, mostly—guys like Michael Faenza, president and chief executive of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, who is working hard on behalf of the city’s neediest people to make Dallas a better place. You spend a little time…

Big Build-Up

Not long ago, Sequina Moore hated showing apartments at the Pleasant Village apartment complex. The place was in bad shape. Drugs were dealt in plain sight, right in front of the management office where she worked. And usually, when she showed a new apartment, she had to step over people…

Teenage and Transgendered

Jacoby James’ palms were sweating. It was almost his turn. As a camera flash illuminated the curtains in front of him, he waited to have his senior picture taken at the Academy of Irving. The photographer’s assistant beckoned. Wishing he weren’t so nervous, James stepped forward. The woman directed him…

No One Wants Eddie LeBaron’s Balls

Someone call Norm Hitzges, pronto. A seller in Woodlake, California, is trying to unload a bunch of 1960 Dallas Cowboys artifacts — including autographed footballs and programs, including one from a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Rams in Oregon. The lot’s full of fascinating keepsakes — if you’re craving,…

How to Forget That Sooner Spanking on October 6, Just Saying

Maybe this is just the shot in the arm — or kick in the prog-metal balls — Deep Ellum needs: On October 6, Fair to Midland’s scheduled to perform at the Crowdus Street Music Festival, otherwise known as the Texas-OU after-party. Guess it’s not new news necessarily; FtM’s appearance has…

An Empty Bottle of Whine

An Open Letter to Pappas Bros. Steakhouse Dear Pappas Bros. Steakhouse and Those Involved with the Promotion of Last Night’s Wine Reception Which I Did Not Attend, Do. Not. Send. Me. An. Empty. Wine. Bottle. Promoting. Your. Wine. Tasting. Parties. Ever. Again. Functionally, Andrea Grimes You see, late yesterday a…

Former Observer Managing Editor Has A New Book Out. Again.

Emily Benedek takes a much nicer publicity photo than Patrick “Buzz” Williams. In Former Dallas Observer Managing Editor News, Emily Benedek’s new book — her fourth, nice — goes on sale this week. Titled Red Sea, it’s partially based on research Emily accrued during her tailing a Fort Worth-based FBI…

The Cowboys’ Money in the Tank

Damn that Super Bowl scent is intoxicating. A 2-0 start, a void in the defensive line and, voila, the Dallas Cowboys are taking a chance on a guy known to stockpile more munitions than David Koresh. Dallas’ signing of gun-toting, run-stuffing Tank Johnson is, of course, vintage Jerry Jones. This…

Getting a Charge from Local Airports

This is so not how you should charge your computer. Just yesterday I plugged into one of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport’s free and freestanding “charging kiosks” — maybe the best thing about Terminal B, except maybe Cousin’s Bar-B-Q and that iPod dispenser from which I almost snagged some Sony noise-canceling…

The Moose Was Loose in the Senate

You really should take a minute or two out of your morning to read Daryl “Moose” Johnston’s testimony yesterday in front of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is investigating how the National Football League treats its former players. (Hint: not well at all.) It was powerful stuff, befitting a great…

Is the Man Behind the TXU Deal a Hero or a Villain? Depends.

To his friends, this is Fred Krupp. To his enemies, reports The New Republic, he’s Fred Corrupt. In the new issue of The New Republic, there’s a lengthy (subscription-only) profile of Fred Krupp — president of Environmental Defense and the man behind TXU’s $45-billion sale to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts &…

Chelsea’s Story

A self-portrait by Chelsea Richardson A few new developments in an old story: I was an intern when Glenna Whitley and I wrote about the brutal murder of a Mansfield couple named Rick and Suzanna Wamsley in 2003. Their son, Andrew Wamsley, and his girlfriend, Chelsea Richardson, have been sentenced,…

Bryce Got Next

Brian Harkin Bryce Avary at the Granada Theater a few months back, looking an awful lot like Rhett Miller … Good news for anyone (and everyone, it seems) familiar with Bryce Avary, aka The Rocket Summer. Colleyville’s most famous panty-dropper and writer of catchy pop-rock tunes has won the most…

Former UTD Student Gets Six Years

Former UTD electrical engineering student Syed Maaz Shah got more than six years in prison last week. On Friday, in a court ruling that went with little local notice, a federal judge sentenced a former student at the University of Texas at Dallas to six and a half years in…

One Door Closes…

That did not take long: The Door has moved into its new home at Main Street and Good Latimer Expressway, in the space formerly occupied by the Gypsy Tea Room. Had to: As the all-ages club’s Web site notes: “We did not want to move but our former building is…

Damn This Traffic Jam

The Texas Travel Institute at Texas A&M has just released its long-awaited (?) 2007 Urban Mobility Report, and it says what anyone who drives in Dallas and the surrounding ‘burbs already knows: Traffic suuuuucks. Says here folks in the DFW are delayed by congestion some 58 hours per year, which…